John Lawrence (writer)

John Lawrence (1753–1839) was an English writer on political and agricultural subjects, chiefly known for being an early proponent of ethical treatment of animals.

Lawrence was born 22 January 1753 in or near Colchester, the son and grandson of brewers. His father John died when Lawrence was 10, and Lawrence later invested his inheritance in a stock farm. When he was 15 he wrote a school essay "in favour of kindness to animals". His first publications were political and showed admiration of the French Revolution and advancing the rights of man.

In 1796 he published the first volume of his most successful work, a "Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses and on the Moral Duties of Man towards the Brute Creation". In his "New Farmer's Calendar" (1800) and "The Modern Land Steward" (1801) he advocated for killing food animals painlessly. In an 1805 "Dictionary of the Veterinary Art" Lawrence's "enlightened" views on the rights of beasts are recommended to veterinarians. In his "British Field Sports" (1818) he proposed a system of "sporting ethics" "to root out 'that horrible propensity in the human breast, a sense of sport and delight in witnessing the tortures of brute animals.'" He was consulted by Richard Martin about Martin's Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822, one of the first pieces of animal welfare legislation.

Lawrence was considered in his time an authority on horses; his "History of the Horse" went through fourteen editions in his lifetime, and he was a regular contributor to publications such as The Sporting Magazine.

After a period in which he was largely forgotten, Lawrence's arguments for animal rights were republished in 1879 by Edward Nicholson in his "The Rights of an Animal: A New Essay in Ethics". Lawrence was also quoted extensively in Henry Stephens Salt's 1894 "Animals’ Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress".

In his 1796 "Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses", Lawrence wrote of the rights of animals: They arise then, spontaneously, from the conscience, or sense of moral obligation in man, who is indispensibly bound to bestow upon animals, in return for the benefit he derives from their services, "good and sufficient nourishment, comfortable shelter, and merciful treatment; to commit no wanton outrage upon their feelings, whilst alive, and to put them to the speediest and least painful death, when it shall be necessary to deprive them of life."

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